


Spirit Week

by alessandralee



Category: Descendants (2015)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-31
Updated: 2015-08-31
Packaged: 2018-04-18 08:50:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,179
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4699820
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/alessandralee/pseuds/alessandralee
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Mal agrees to participate in an Auradon Prep tradition.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Spirit Week

Audrey is the last person Mal expects to find knocking on her door, but that’s exactly what happens.

“Can I help you?” Mal asks with suspicion. She considers slamming the door in the other girl’s face, but ultimately she’s too curious to send Audrey away.

“We need to talk,” Audrey pushes her way into the room. If she’s surprised to find Jay sitting in Mal’s desk chair while Evie patches up one of his vests, or Carlos sprawled out on the floor with Dude, she doesn’t show it. “All of you, even better.”

Evie smiles politely at Audrey before turning back to work. Mal can’t help but think that it’s a shame Audrey’s the one whose royal blood matters in Auradon, because Evie has more nobility in her little finger than Audrey does in her whole body.

“No please, come on in,” Mal rolls her eyes. “Make yourself at home.”

Audrey looks around the room for a place to sit, but ultimately decides to remain standing with her back against the wall. It’s like she’s afraid one of them will sneak up behind her and attack.

Like she’d be worth the effort.

“So it’s come to my attention,” Audrey begins in her sweetest voice, “that none of you have been participating in Spirit Week.”

“I have,” Evie reminds her. “I went with my apple-print pajamas for pajama day, did this cute mod mini-dress for retro day, and put blinking lights on my tiara for crazy hat day.”

“But you did skip Pirate Day.”

Mal, Evie, Jay, and Carlos all look at each other. Jay shrugs.

“We thought it would be best if we skipped that one,” Evie admits.

“Have you ever met a pirate?” Carlos asks.

Jay doesn’t wait for Audrey to answer, they all know she hasn’t, “They smell like moonshine and sweat, and all their clothes have holes in them from sword-fights gone wrong.”

“And those are some of the most pleasant details,” Mal adds.

Audrey crinkles her nose in disgust, but doesn’t run for the door like Mal had expected.

 

“Fine, but tomorrow is school color day,” Audrey tells them. “And it’s the most important Spirit Day because it sets the tone for the homecoming game. If you don’t dress up, it hurts the team’s morale. And then you could be responsible for the team losing.”

Mal just wants to laugh, but it sounds like Audrey might actually believe what she’s saying.

How sad.

“So you,” she tells Mal, “are going to march down to Ben’s room and get his away game jersey. It’s tradition for the players’ girlfriends to wear them, if they have a girlfriend. And if they don’t,” she fixes her eyes on Jay and Carlos, “they give it to a friend. Maybe one of you can lend yours to Evie.”

“No thanks,” Evie replies. “I made myself something special for the occasion.”

Audrey seems a bit taken aback that Evie would refuse a player’s uniform, but she recovers.

“Fine, then find someone else. But I will not let any of you ruin out perfect record this season.”

And with that, Audrey flashes her more saccharine smile and flounces out of the room.

“That was weird,” Carlos comments once she’s sure she’s out of earshot. “She’s kind of scary.”

“Maybe we should just do what she says,” Jay suggests. “It sounds like our easiest option.”

Everyone looks expectantly at Mal. She wants to rebel. She wants to chase Audrey down the hall and tell her where she can stuff Spirit Week.

But she doesn’t. Her friends want to play along, and Mal respects that.

“I’ll go get Ben’s jersey then,” she says through gritted teeth.

It’s a short walk across the down building to Ben’s room, and his enthusiastic greeting is enough to wash away any of Mal’s remaining annoyance with Audrey.

“So Spirit Week…” Mal comments after Ben hugs her hello.

“Are you here for my jersey?” Ben asks with a wide smile. It’s almost enough to make not mind wearing it. Almost. “I had it dry cleaned and I just got it back yesterday. I meant to drop it off after class, but there was this whole issue with the dwarves and it took hours to resolve.”

Mal can’t help but smile. Ben is exactly the kind of guy who would dry clean his smelly, grass stained tourney jersey before his girlfriend has to wear it. It’s a sweet sentiment.

She suddenly finds herself wanting to wear that jersey.

It’s a common side effect of spending time with Ben. He’s so earnest and eager to please that sometimes it rubs off on Mal. In the last few months, he’s managed to get her excited for banquet attendance, mermaid grotto tours, and ballroom dance lessons.

She’s resent him for it, if he wasn’t so caring, and if she didn’t usually end up enjoying herself.

It was nice to meet some of Auradon’s more famous residents, and the grottos are pretty spectacular.

Ben hands her the jersey that’s been sitting on top of his desk. It’s certainly not in her preferred color-scheme, but Mal’s been warming up to blue and gold.

\--

Mal’s expecting the weird looks she gets for showing up to class in something other than purple and lime green. She even asked Evie for help putting together her outfit, just to make herself feel as confident at possible.

There’s only so much in her wardrobe that works with blue and gold, though. They settled on jeans and boots in a shade of purple so dark Evie had to hold them under a lamp to be sure they weren’t actually black.

What Mal isn’t expecting is the amount of approval she’s getting.

“Looking good, Mal,” Lonnie’s older brother calls to her when they pass each other in the hall.

One of Audrey’s cheerleader friends even tells her that the gold really pops against her purple hair.

It’s weird. So weird. But also nice.

Ben’s waiting for her at her locker, his jersey the inverse of her own.

“You know, I think you look better in that than I do,” he greets her with a peck on the lips once he’s sure there are no teachers around to object.

“She totally does,” Lonnie comments. As she walks away, Mal notices that she’s wearing Jay’s jersey.

Ben laughs, “I guess that makes you my good luck charm, then.”

Mal’s face is buried in her locker, pulling out the books she needs for class, when she replies, “Like you need it.”

“We have been doing great this season,” Ben admits after Mal’s closed her locker. “But you’re still coming to the game, right?”

“Ben,” Mal grabs him by the arm to make sure she has his attention, “have I ever missed a game?” She hasn’t. “I will be there, and I will be your good luck charm, and, if you’re really lucky, I might even do the wave.”

“That’s what I like to hear,” Ben settles an arm across her shoulders as he steers them down the hall to their first class of the day.


End file.
